Online Sources Growing for Video Content Discovery

The main ways by which people discover video content haven’t changed much since last year. But as a new report from Nielsen [download page] reveals, online ads and social media platforms are growing in stature as sources of video content awareness.

This year one-third of survey respondents ages 13 and older said they use social media websites and apps to discover new movies, TV shows or other full-length video content. That’s up from 29% saying so last year, representing 17% relative growth year-over-year.

A similar proportion (36%) of respondents discover video content through commercials, ads and/or trailers seen online, up from 32% last year.

These were the only discovery methods to see any growth from last year, reflecting the greater use of digital media.

The primary vehicles for full-length video content awareness remain the same as last year. Six in 10 (59%) rely on word-of-mouth, unchanged from last year (60%), while almost half (47%) discover content through promotions seen on TV (also flat from last year’s 46%).

Digital Download Purchases Grow More Common

This year’s Video 360 report also finds that more people are downloading digital video. Some 42% of the general 13+ population purchased digital video in the past year, a 20% relative increase from 35% from last year.

Physical video purchases remain slightly more common, as half (51%) have made such a purchase in the past year – mostly unchanged from last year’s result (48%).

Data from The NPD Group generally supports those preferences, but finds a much wider degree of separation between physical and digital transactions. Among the 54% of respondents ages 13 and older who rented or purchased video content in the prior year, half (49%) relied on physical only, compared to about one-fifth (18%) on digital only.

Even so, that report also revealed growing use of digital rentals and purchases: among “transactors,” 51% consumed at least some digital content, up from 44% last year.

Other Highlights

In other findings from Nielsen’s report:

1 in 4 respondents (13+) have watched a movie online before it was released on DVD/Blu-ray, and a similar proportion (23%) while it was still theaters;

More than 4 in 10 (42%) have ever watched live streamed content, a seemingly large increase from the 1 in 4 in last year’s report;

A slight majority (55%) have watched short-form video in the past 3 months;